A very personal book created by FUJICOLOR ARTBOOK.

Kureya: First of all, I want to see a lot of the outside world that I cannot see in my daily life. If you go to a place with little information, you will find a huge gap. For example, I hear that the buildings are very small, or that it takes so long to get to the destination. Some restaurants may not have the best atmosphere, but the food may be delicious, or the building itself may not even exist. These happenings themselves are very interesting. The process of getting to your destination while taking pictures is very interesting, even though things often don't turn out the way you expect them to.

Kureya: Yes, I am describing the mood of the trip as it always is. We had breakfast, took a walk to see a nearby lake, and so on. I tried to make a book of such casual flow. However, this "Sometime ago, As the title "Somewhere, Somewhere, Somewhere" suggests, this time I did not limit the time or place of shooting, but rather, I created the book with the idea of creating a fictitious flow of a single day. There is Europe, America, and Japan in this film, and I have not narrowed down the seasons.

Kureya: I didn't want to include too much unnecessary information. I didn't want to include too much extraneous information. It was like when you are on a trip with only a destination in mind, and you think, "Let's just go here today by car. I wanted the viewer to see it from that perspective. When I travel, I often wander around with a camera in my hand, thinking that there might be something ahead. When I do that, there is a lot of blank space. Most of the time there is nothing, but I do get some white looks from the inhabitants (laughs).

Kureya: I think that kind of extra space is important. Especially when I travel alone, I don't overload my schedule and allow myself plenty of time to spare, and I put that leeway into this trip. As you might expect, I get a bit impatient when I can't take any pictures at all (laughs). (laughs) But it is also important to have that margin of time where you can't take a picture if you can't take a picture. I wanted the viewer to take their time and look at each point at such a tempo, so I tried to edit the film in that way.

Kureya: I believe that photographers create photo collections with a variety of intentions. There are many points that are overlooked in a single reading, and after viewing a book two or three times, you may notice the combination of compositions, the composition of colors, and the overall sense of unity. You may wonder why the layout is the way it is. For example, a photo of the same person on each spread, with only a slight difference in facial expression. That alone can make you imagine a story. That is very interesting. Once again, I am reminded of the depth of photo editing.

Kureya: Yes, I did not emphasize it in particular, but I tried to create a sense of unity. Rather than arranging strong photos, we wanted the reader to feel the flow from morning to night within a single volume. The color red makes a statement, so I thought I would try to use it sparingly this time. I dared to use the same layout to show a continuous flow, without too many ups and downs.

Kureya: It was much better than I had imagined. I usually send out color proofs and check the layout, composition, size, and overall balance of the book. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive because I couldn't get a feel for the paper quality and size, but when I received the book, I was surprised to find that it was better than I had expected. There are some papers that absorb ink and do not reproduce black or deep colors well, but this was not the case. Considering the ease and speed of this service, I think the quality is very high.

Kureya: I wanted to see if the black would tighten up well, so I dared to choose it this time. If the solidness was good, I thought it would expand the possibilities. This would also be a good way to give shape to something I was thinking of making on a trial basis. When you are struggling with the composition of a book, you could make one and show it to the people around you. By showing it to someone, you can get reactions, opinions, and impressions, which can lead to good opportunities and inspiration.

Kureya: I have been making zines for about 20 years and have done everything except printing. I've been making zines since about 20 years ago, doing everything by DIY except for the printing process, but I realized that while it was easy, it was also difficult and had its limitations. So I took it a step further, obtained an ISBN code, and started a photo magazine called ".OWT. Publishing" as a photo magazine, and now I am publishing it as a book. For me, this is the process of creating my own photo magazine, which I have longed to do. However, I don't want to omit anything that I have accumulated through zines. That is why I place importance on doing all the processes myself as much as possible, including shooting, collating, and bookbinding. I have gained more trusted colleagues with each release, but the bookbinding process is still very difficult (laughs).

Kureya: And what I thought was incredibly helpful was that there were many layout patterns. People who have never made a layout before should make full use of them. There are many photo zines with elaborate layouts, but I felt that I had already done that, so I decided to keep it simple. Also, with zines, it is sometimes tempting to cram too much into a single page. By arranging multiple photos in a row, the power of a single photo may be diluted. If you want to show each photo properly, I think it is a good idea to print the photos on paper of this size and arrange them in this luxurious way.

Kureya: I think it's great for people who want to make a book for the first time. You want to make a book, but you don't know how to do it. Want to ask someone, but don't know how to go about it. You have done your research, but you want to go a little further. In such a case, it would be very easy to have a service like this with a fixed format, from the paper quality to the format. Prints are difficult to make because the colors come out differently depending on the machine and the paper. I would like people to be able to see them in person, so I am thinking of putting them in my next exhibition. The North Face Standard Kyoto" will be held from May 9 (Sat.) to 17 (Sun.) as part of the "KG+" photography festival. The North Face Standard will hold a photo exhibition at "Kyoto" from May 9 (Sat.) to 17 (Sun.). I would like to invite everyone who reads this article to come and see it.

Kaneko: My main camera is a full-size mirrorless camera. I have a standard zoom lens, two telephoto zoom lenses, and a very bright f/1.0 single focal length lens, which is my recent favorite. These three lenses are my current favorites.

Kaneko: I didn't originally intend to get this hooked on cameras. I started with a compact digital camera under the influence of a fellow cyclist who loved photography. But when I started taking street snapshots abroad, I felt more and more resistance to missing shots because of the equipment. I'm not technically very good, so I take pictures by feel, and that's why I can't take satisfactory pictures without the help of my equipment.

Kaneko: I almost never print. There are some that I retouch a bit, but I just hang them on a storage service and save them, and I don't sort them at all, they just become a thing of the past.... The only place to put them out is almost exclusively on Instagram. But the number of photos I can post is limited. There were a lot of good photos that ended up with no place to put them, and that was a problem for me.

Kaneko: That's right. I once made a booklet of photos I took at a camp and handed it out, and the book was extremely well received. Because of that experience, I had always had a sense of anticipation about having my photos published in a book. When I heard about this opportunity, I thought it would be a good time to do it.

Kaneko: This is a photo of the town of Ferrara, Italy. This is the home of the bag brand "Ferrazzi," with which I have been working since last year, and I took this photo on my second visit. It's not a very famous country town, but it's a place where the brand has grown for 50 years, and I thought it was important to convey the town itself. However, I was mostly just taking pictures out of interest. But I am glad that I had this opportunity to tell the story of a town that not many people know about. I think there are opportunities to see articles and photos featuring famous places, but there are probably not many opportunities to see more mundane, ordinary places.

Kaneko: “It means ”fleeting moment. I was inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson's phrase "the decisive moment. Since I was on a business stay, I had business meetings during the day, so I only had a few moments when I could go outside. I thought the title fit well with the fact that I was taking pictures in the gaps.

Kaneko: That's right. The other day I went to Pitti Uomo for the first time in a while, and I thought that the people snapped at the show were biased. When I go to the show, I find that there are many cool people that no one pays attention to. It is natural for me to take pictures of such people, so I guess this is my point of view. I hope that the photos included in this project will convey a kind of love for the city to the Ferrisi team that is difficult to convey in words.

Kaneko: There is a big difference between seeing the images on paper and on a computer. For example, there is a boy who was shot with a streamer, but when I saw it on the screen, I thought it was just a boy wearing a blue down coat. But when I looked at the print, I saw the gradation of the tanned skin and the three-dimensionality of the dog being pulled. I had not noticed these details at all.

Kaneko: On paper, you can look at it objectively. There is a page that shows a store where people are gathering at night, and I feel that the atmosphere of that night and that time comes out as it was, and I feel that it comes out more clearly on paper. It's totally different from what you see in the image. It's much better (laughs). The paper is thicker and better. I feel like it's Ferrara when I look at it.

Kaneko: It was easy to operate, as all I had to do was follow the screen. I was told that the AI would create the layout for me, so I tried it out and found it to be very good. I thought it would be better to have the AI analyze the photos and arrange them rather than me thinking about this and that without a clear goal in mind, so I left the photo selection to the AI while making adjustments myself. This time, the photos are arranged in chronological order of the trip.

Kaneko: Once I had AI put it all together and looked back at it, there were some points that felt a little strange to me. I replaced the photos and made the spreads one-sided. The AI did 90% of the work, and the remaining 10% was done by me, so there was room for me to make my own changes. Doing it all myself would be too much of a hurdle, and leaving it all to me would not allow me to express my personality. I found just the right balance between the two.

Kaneko: First of all, I would like to give them to the FELIGI team, because I am going to Italy again in June, and I would like to take them as souvenirs. I think it's great that we can communicate through photography what we can't communicate through words. I like taking pictures and I am usually satisfied with them, but putting them into a form gives me a chance to look back and to convey something to someone else by leaving them in a tangible form. I think it's great that it is not only self-contained, but that it can be expanded.